Tech giant to invest $40m in Irish operations

Nasdaq-listed technology company Xilinx is to invest $40m to expand its research, development and engineering operations at its EMEA headquarters in Dublin and Cork.

The firm plans to recruit 100 new employees across its base in Dublin and engineering centre in Cork, including 75 senior silicon and electronics engineering staff.

The investment and recruitment drive will support Xilinx's research, development and engineering work for advanced technologies and products including the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in key markets such as cloud computing, embedded vision, industrial IoT (Internet of Things) and 5G wireless.

"Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) will have a profound impact across a wide range of applications that impact society as a whole," said senior vice president Kevin Cooney.

"Xilinx is uniquely positioned to accelerate the proliferation of these applications from edge to cloud.

"This investment by Xilinx in Ireland will fuel advanced product development and research that will enable ever more intelligent and efficient AI development and deployment."

The investment is supported by the Irish government through IDA Ireland.

Executive director Mary Buckley added: "Xilinx has been at the forefront of ground-breaking innovation in Ireland for over 20 years now, and its significant investment into the realm of artificial intelligence announced today indicates that this trend is set to continue.

"Xilinx's continued commitment to Ireland not only enhances Ireland's reputation as a pioneering location for high value research in the technology space, it also demonstrates that Ireland has both the necessary business infrastructure and talent pool to attract global tech companies here. I wish the team at Xilinx every success and offer the continued support of IDA Ireland."

Xilinx first established operations in Dublin in 1995. Today the company employs a 350-strong workforce at its headquarters in Citywest, where it operates a research, product development, engineering and IT centre along with centralised supply, finance, legal and HR functions.